Members of the European Central Bank’s Governing Council are emitting diverging signals on a monetary policy that for the past year has focused on curbing inflation, with some now leaving the door open for lower interest rates as the euro-zone economy slows to a standstill.

Athanasios Orphanides of Cyprus said Monday that current ECB policy remains appropriately accommodative and that policy rates are very low.

ECB board member from Luxembourg Yves Mersch straddled the fence, telling Germany’s Boersen-Zeitung Monday that interest rates should be raised in the medium term to avoid the distortive effects of negative real interest rates. Still, he told the paper that cuts in interest rates “aren’t completely ruled out,” saying that the central bank has room to move if economic dynamics were to clearly worsen, but he stressed that current data do not suggest this.

The comments reflect a shift in the lock-step thinking that had marked commentary from senior ECB officials, who had downplayed signs of a slowing economy and the impact of the debt crisis.